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The Congress that convened two years ago under the war cries of the tea party is slowly coming to an end with a Champagne-less whimper on New Year’s Day 2013.

The House voted late Tuesday evening, in a rare holiday session, to pass a fiscal cliff bill brokered without the involvement of the GOP majority and with far less than half of their votes.

The bill (HR 8) was amended by the Senate in the early morning hours on an 89-8 vote, carrying language crafted over the holiday weekend by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The 257-167 roll call in the humbled House concluded close to 11 p.m., with 172 Democratic votes and only 85 Republicans, fewer of their own conference than GOP leaders hoped for perhaps, but more than enough to clear the necessary majority to send the legislation to President Barack Obama’s desk.

“Am I having a nightmare, or what?” Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio could be heard saying on the House floor, perhaps in jest. Boehner voted for the measure. Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California and Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam of Illinois all voted against it. Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., who has largely remained quiet during the debate over the last few weeks, voted for the legislation.

The speaker is undoubtedly weakened. For the time being, the fiscal cliff is averted, although most of the day was spent suspended over it. But the lingering ill will and distrust between the two parties, and indeed within the Republican Party, is as potent as ever. Boehner now slumps into the 113th Congress with gavel firmly in hand but with scant ability to wield its power to control his conference.

The path leading up to this rare, albeit grudgingly bipartisan, outcome wound through a series of bizarre twists and turns, with House Republicans effectively neutering their lead negotiator, leaving themselves no choice but to acquiesce to the Senate’s will or risk economic and political catastrophe.

“This vote is a very clear indicator that Republicans are not running Washington, D.C., that Democrats are still in charge and we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” said GOP Rep. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who represented the historic freshman class as one of its two leadership representatives in the 112th Congress.